Page 23 of Broken Clocks

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When he reached for me, I didn’t think.

I let my body take over.

I fucked him out of spite.

Sucked his soul through his dick.

Rode him until he couldn’t speak. Until he confessed he still loved me.

I didn’t say it back.

I just rolled over and went to sleep.

I fucked him again the next morning.

He didn’t go home.

Sinica called his phone all night.

It made me happy.

If I didn’t get a happily ever after, neither would she.

She called to apologize, and I lied.

Told her I forgave them both.

Keep your enemies close, right?

A month later, she called to complain.

“He’s never home,” she said. “I feel like I’m doing this pregnancy thing alone.”

“Sounds hard,” I replied, trying not to laugh.

“He’s been working a lot.”

“Maybe talk to him about it instead of me?”

“I will,” she said, pausing. “Thank you again, Eshe. For forgiving us. We never meant to hurt you.”

Donte was beside me in bed while she was complaining about him.

Snoring softly.

He was on vacation, and so was I.

He’d given me twenty thousand dollars of their money so I could take two weeks off to be with him.

Said he wanted to spend every second of his vacation with me.

So I let him.

We fucked, watched TV, joked like it was old times.

He believed the act.

I didn’t.

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